The Whiskey Rebellion was a series of disturbances in
1794 aimed against the enforcement of a U.S. federal law
of 1791 imposing an excise tax on whiskey. The burden of
the tax, which had been sponsored by the Federalist leader
and secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton, fell
largely on western Pennsylvania, then one of the chief
whiskey-producing regions of the country. The grain
farmers, most of whom were also distillers, depended on
whiskey for almost all their income, and they considered
the law an attack on their liberty and economic well-being.
Organized resistance to the tax, even including the tarring
and feathering of federal revenue officials, rapidly assumed
grave proportions. Warrants for the arrest of a large
number of noncomplying distillers were issued by the
federal authorities in the spring of 1794; in the riots that
followed a federal officer was killed, and a mob burned the
home of the regional inspector of the excise. In a
proclamation......
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